---
title: "CV: senior backend engineer · Mihai Nicolae"
canonical: https://mnic.dev/cv
author: Mihai Nicolae
updated: 2026-09-28
description: "My resume on one page: work experience, education and skills, with a PDF you can download or print."
language: en
---

# Mihai Nicolae

Senior Backend Engineer · Cluj-Napoca, Romania

- Email: [hi@mnic.dev](mailto:hi@mnic.dev)
- Web: [mnic.dev](https://mnic.dev)
- GitHub: [github.com/mdnicolae](https://github.com/mdnicolae)
- LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/m-nicolae](https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-nicolae/)
- PDF: [Download PDF](https://mnic.dev/cv/Mihai-Nicolae-CV.pdf)

## Summary

Senior backend engineer with five years of production experience in PHP, Go and Python. I care about performance, simple architecture and developer productivity, and I have been building AI-assisted development workflows since 2025.

## Experience

### Senior Backend Developer (PHP), FameUp

Oct 2025 – Present · Remote, Romania

Shipping API features for a creator marketing platform and building its agentic development workflow.

- Built an agentic bug-fixing pipeline: bugs reported in Slack are picked up, fixed and tested by an agent; developers only review and merge.
- Cut network traffic by 95% by moving image delivery from S3 to Cloudflare Images: every image is resized on the fly to the exact format the mobile apps or the backend ask for, cached with targeted invalidation, and served from Cloudflare’s global CDN.
- Improved CI/CD for agentic development: automatic deployment on merge, parallel tests, PHPStan at max level and AI code review.
- Wrote agent skills that set a shared standard for AI-assisted development across the team.
- Delivered creator referrals, gamification and barter collaborations.

Stack: PHP, Cloudflare Images, PHPStan, CodeRabbit, Claude Code, MCP, CI/CD

### Senior Backend Developer (PHP, Go & Python), freshful.ro (eMAG)

Jul 2023 – Oct 2025 · Remote, Romania

Backend for an online grocery delivery service, from order flows to route optimisation.

- Cut pipeline runtime by almost 50% with parallel tests, fixture-based test databases and isolated Elasticsearch indexes.
- Built DSO (Driver Shift Optimization), an OR-Tools service in Python and Go that lowered delivery costs by 37%.
- Led technical analysis for large projects and acted as backend owner for OTP verification, vouchers and promotions.
- Improved response times with New Relic profiling and fixed critical performance bugs.
- Worked across AWS, Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana, Redis, RabbitMQ and Elasticsearch.

Stack: PHP, Go, Python, OR-Tools, Elasticsearch, Redis, RabbitMQ, AWS, Kubernetes, Grafana

### PHP Developer, NetRom Software

Sep 2021 – Jul 2023 · Craiova and Timișoara, Romania

Scalable PHP applications for an online retailer selling in 44 countries.

- Developed and maintained high-traffic PHP applications.
- Built internal REST microservices in Node.js.
- Integrated third-party APIs and reduced response times of core flows.
- Worked directly with the client on requirements and technical guidance.

Stack: PHP, Node.js, REST APIs, MySQL

## Education

### Master’s in Software Engineering

Politehnica University of Timișoara · Oct 2023 – Jun 2025

Taught in English. Cloud computing, DevOps, advanced databases and distributed systems.

### B.Sc. in Computer Engineering

Faculty of Automation, Computers and Electronics, Craiova · Oct 2018 – Jul 2022

Compiler design, object-oriented programming and databases.

## Skills

- **Backend:** PHP, Symfony, Laravel, API Platform, Node.js, NestJS, Go, Python
- **Frontend:** TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Next.js, Astro
- **Data & messaging:** MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, RabbitMQ, BullMQ, Kafka, Couchbase
- **Infrastructure:** AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, Cloudflare Workers, Prometheus, Grafana, Linux
- **AI tooling:** Claude Code, MCP, Cursor, Agentic workflows, Prompt engineering
- **Practices:** OOP, SOLID, Design patterns, Static analysis, CI/CD, Profiling

## Languages

- Romanian: Native
- English: Full professional

## Projects

- [elivo](https://mnic.dev/projects/elivo): A telemedicine platform connecting patients with verified specialists across Romania. Live site: https://elivo.ro
- [alexandraghionea.ro](https://mnic.dev/projects/alexandraghionea): A nutrition guide shop and a 320-post Instagram archive, static-first on Cloudflare. Live site: https://alexandraghionea.ro
- [Fixie](https://mnic.dev/projects/agentic-bug-fixing): A bug-fixing agent that lives in Slack: it triages reports, opens Jira tickets and turns bugs into tested pull requests.
- [DSO (Driver Shift Optimization)](https://mnic.dev/projects/dso): A constraint solver that assigns drivers to orders and cut delivery costs by 37%.